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Kick Off: SJ's Yallop doesn't want NFL scenario in MLS

April 20, 2012

Simon Borg

MLSsoccer.com

Photo Credit:

Getty Images

They’re calling it “a big home game” in San Jose.

The Western Conference lead will be on the line when the San Jose Earthquakes welcome Real Salt Lake (10:30 p.m. ET, MLS LIVE), but SJ will be without three of their best players: the injured Shea Salinas and Victor Bernardez and the suspended Marvin Chavez.

And the Quakes are not happy about it.

Team GM John Doyle does not agree with the one-game ban issued by the MLS Disciplinary Committee to Chavez and the three-game suspension to NY’s Rafael Marquez for the incident which injured Salinas last week. “I’m disappointed for our fans,” Doyle said.

On the field, the match-up between San Jose’s Chris Wondolowski and the Real Salt Lake defense looks tasty: “When I look at Wondo, I think … that could be me," says left back Chris Wingert. "He’s not overly athletic or does anything crazy, but let’s give the guy some credit.”

Sporting Kansas City and their 7-0-0 record are receiving lots of credit lately and on Saturday night they head to Portland to face a Timbers team that have lost four straight (10:30 p.m. ET, MLS LIVE). “We’ve also had a lot of bad luck and I’m not going to point fingers to bad calls or injuries or that kind of stuff,” says Timbers owner Merritt Paulson. “When it comes, it comes. This is a sport that moves in cycles and we got our bad play out of the way early.” (VIDEO)

The defending MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy visit the Colorado Rapids (9 p.m. ET, MLS LIVE) and Colorado manager Oscar Pareja is not backing down: “Going forward we need to beat L.A.," he said. “We need to be more dangerous and create options to score. At the end of the day, that's going to give you points.”

We’ll see if Houston forward Will Bruin can follow up his goal from last weekend in Chicago. This week the Dynamo are in Columbus (7:30 p.m. ET, MLS LIVE): "You could just see in my reaction it was kind of a big stress off my shoulders," Bruin said about his goal vs. the Fire. "People talk about sophomore slumps and everything, and that wasn't something that I was going through.”

The Crew are still celebrating the hiring of club legend Frankie Hejduk, who will work for the club as an ambassador in a variety of roles. Hejduk himself celebrated by taking a sip of Guinness during his press conference yesterday: “I think I can make a huge difference in the community,” he says.

Toronto FC host the Chicago Fire in the NBC Sports Network game of the week on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET). The match will showcase one gritty defender who dabbles in painting and has two oil creations being showcased in a local gallery. The name might surprise you.

Chivas USA are winless in 2012 … at home. They will hope to reverse the trend when they host the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night (10:30 p.m. ET, MLS LIVE). Will the Goats have to face the new-look Union attack? It sounds like Danny Mwanga could get a look with newly acquired Kai Herdling: “To me [Herdling] is more like an attacking midfielder, which is great. We played a little together and he will be great for our team," Mwanga says.

The Guatemalan national team has called up Marco Pappa ahead of an April 25 exhibition against Paraguay. We’ll see if he’s released by the club. (SPANISH)

In a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press Sports Editors, MLS commissioner Don Garber said the league would be interested in bringing Spanish legend Raul to MLS. He also talked about a “near auction” for a potential 20 expansion team in NY and his openness “to using goal-line technology as soon as it is made available.”